I distinctly remember the previous Prime Minister Kevin Rudd declaring loudly that he was going to push through a Supertax of about 30% on mining. Next thing we knew there were rumbles and he was ousted very quickly. I personally suspected it was the big mining corporations that lent on the government. Just my two cents.

Why does the education system rely on overpriced commercial literature at all?

Good question. Perhaps we could start a Wikipedia style website for people to contribute educational material. This information could be organised textbook style and printed cheaply and easily for use in schools.

Software patents are essentially patenting a thought process. One thing the internet has taught me is that the world is VAST. Nearly anything I can think of, has been thought of by someone else.
I think you can see the problem with patenting a thought process.